Kyrgyzstan
The mountains, including the Tian Shan Mountains (pictured), give Kyrgyzstan a unique
culture, partially formed from this isolation from the mountains.
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Ethnicity, Language, & Religion of Malaysia

Ethnicity

Just over half of the people in Malaysia are ethnically
Malay, an ethnic group related to the people of both Micronesia and Polynesia, with
further relations to the people of Indonesia and
China. The next largest ethnic group is Han Chinese, who make up nearly
a quarter of the population. There are various other ethnic groups represented in
the country that together make up the final quarter of the population, including
Indians and various indigenous people.

Language

Malaysia has numerous languages, but only Malaysian is
an official language. Malaysian is distantly related to all the Polynesian languages,
but its closest relative is Indonesian as native speakers of each can generally
understand most of what the other says. Various Chinese languages, most commonly
Cantonese and Mandarin, are also spoken natively by a large number of people as
is Tamil and smaller indigenous languages. English is a common second language in
Malaysia and is often the language of communication between groups.

Islam is the official religion of Malaysia and about 60%
of the people follow this faith. Another 20% are Buddhist (primarily the ethnic
Chinese), 10% are Christian and the rest adhere to numerous other religions, most
notably Hinduism.

Islam (the name of the religion, whose followers are called Muslims) is a monotheistic
religion, whose holy book is called the Qur'an. The Qur'an is believed to
be the word of God spoken through the prophet Muhammad from 609-632 CE (Common Era
is preferred over AD (Anno Domini or "year of the Lord") since the Islamic
world doesn't believe Jesus was the messiah). Islam believes Muhammad was the
last prophet sent to earth by God, the last in a long line of prophets, which includes
Moses, Abraham, and Jesus among others.

Muslims follow five pillars of their faith: testimony, prayer, alms-giving, fasting,
and pilgrimage. These pillars, and other tenants of their faith, can give great
structure to their lives as some foods, like pork, are forbidden and every Muslim
is expected to pray five times a day. However, the level of participation in each
of these pillars and to what degree Islam influences an individual's life varies
from person to person and community to community.